Fearful ordeal ends in process of elimination

The House of Commons is, contrary to what you might imagine, a very supportive place, so David Blunkett rose to an encouraging cheer - from his own side, at least.

Even Labour MPs who think Mr Blunkett would make a fine Tory home secretary joined the cheering.

In parliament, everyone is innocent and fragrant and perfect in all respects - until the circumstances change.

Mr Blunkett's dog, Sadie, seemed less enthusiastic and wandered off down the front bench, soliciting pats from various ministers. She seems rather more house-trained than her predecessor, Lucy, who once threw up in the middle of a debate.

This was an important speech for the home secretary. Facing the permanent threat of terrorism and the heaviest legislative programme of any minister in the government, and, no doubt, having spent hours and hours closeted with his lawyers, he had to demonstrate he was still on top of his job.

Did he? Well, sort of. He was clearly feeling flat and read out his speech from a braille text slowly and without much passion. He spent a long time on the charge that the government is trying to frighten us all into voting Labour at the next election, saying: "Our agenda is not to bring fear, but to remove fearfulness."

The more fearful people were, the more likely they were to turn to extremes of right and left. The gist seemed to be: "We will stop you being fearful by telling you what we are doing about the horrifying terrors that you face."

It was five minutes before anyone mentioned the 500lb gorilla in the corner. Derek Conway, a Tory, stood up and said that very many people in the house would wish Mr Blunkett well in the difficulties he was facing.

But the goodwill did not last long. Mr Conway wanted to know why was he putting such a strain on the Metropolitan police, who are now obliged to fill in a form every time they stop anyone in the street for any purpose. How long, asked fellow Tory Roger Gale, did it take to fill in this form?

Well, not seven minutes, as some had claimed. "Have you ever done it?" someone yelled, tastelessly, and he replied with some dignity that he had once done it by dictation, and it had taken 90 seconds.

Then there were indications of unravelling, like a single stray thread in a sweater. He was asked how often he had voted for the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He could not remember.

"My glass is half full and not half empty, and that's the way it's going to be, because I seek to remove the fear of difference, to remove fear of hurt in our communities, we need to strengthen hope and half-full glasses rather than half-empty ones, and strengthening our identity is one way."

It became more elliptical, more like the wisdom of a hermit. "Knowing your true identity and being able to demonstrate it is a positive plus. It's a basic human right all of us should treasure."